Founded in 1962, the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (YPO) is the premier orchestra at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School—the pre-college division of New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. The YPO is under the dynamic leadership of Music Director and Conductor Benjamin Zander, and comprised of accomplished young musicians between the ages of 12 and 18 who are selected annually from 400 applicants.

Fifteen international concert tours have enriched audiences on four continents and established YPO as one of the finest youth orchestras in the world. Most recently, they traveled to China in 2007. YPO has been invited and sponsored by such prestigious organizations as the Friendship Ambassador Foundation, Korean Broadcasting Service, Pacific Cultural Foundation, Mozarteum Argentino, and BankBoston. Benjamin Zander has led YPO in concerts at some of the finest concert halls of the world, including three sold-out performances on the subscription series of Santiago, Chile’s Teatro Municipal, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the Teatros Muncipal of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In 1998, the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra was invited to participate in the 2nd National Youth Orchestra Festival sponsored by the American Symphony Orchestra League. The festival brought together 450 of the country’s most accomplished young instrumentalists to study under the guidance of an esteemed faculty. Selected from a national pool of applicants through a rigorous two-part audition process, only five of this country’s leading youth orchestras were chosen.

WGBH-TV, Boston’s public television station, has produced two documentary films of the orchestra’s tour of Chile. The one-hour documentary film, A New World of Music, produced by Concert Productions, Inc. from the 1995 tour of Chile and Argentina, was nominated for an Emmy Award and has aired nationally on public television. The CD recordings of YPO have received acclaim from Classic FM Magazine, Fanfare Magazine and the American Record Guide in which the playing of the Dvorak New World Symphony was lauded as “unbelievable in its conviction and communication.” The American Record Guide concluded: “Listen to the New England Conservatory Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and you will know there is hope for the future. The kids of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra are remarkable. But don’t take my word for it—hear it for yourself.”

To hear YPO please visit: http://www.benjaminzander.com/recordings/nec.asp

    
Benjamin Zander - dirigent

Benjamin Zander has been on the faculty of the New England Conservatory for forty-two years. As conductor of the Youth Philharmonic, Artistic Director of the New England Conservatory at Walnut Hill program, teacher of the Interpretation Class at NEC and as conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, he has had the opportunity to impact the lives of countless young musicians in this community. During his thirty-seven-year tenure as conductor of the New England Conservatory Youth Philharmonic he has taken the orchestra on thirteen international tours, made five commercial recordings and several PBS specials.

Now in his thirty-first season with the Boston Philharmonic, he has performed an extensive repertoire, including a traversal of the complete symphonies of Gustav Mahler. The BPO has recorded five highly successful CD's, all of which are listed in the Penguin Guide of The Best Recordings of the Past Twenty Years. Their recording of The Rite of Spring was voted as one of the Ten Most Important Musical Events of 1992 by the New York Times.

Mr. Zander has established an international reputation as a guest conductor. He has conducted the Israel Philharmonic for the past three consecutive years, and conducted orchestras as diverse as the Bournemouth Symphony, the Scottish and Irish National Orchestras, the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the Malaysian Symphony, the St Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, and appeared with the National Youth Orchestra of New Zealand, and the Australian Youth Orchestra.

With the Philharmonia Orchestra of London he is nearing the completion of his recording of the complete cycle of the Mahler Symphonies for Telarc. The phenomenal success of these discs is in part due to the eloquent and informative discussion discs which accompany each disc. The Mahler 6th was named the "Best Classical Recording" of 2002 by High Fidelity. The Mahler 9th was nominated for a Grammy. Both have been elected to the Fanfare Magazine classical music Hall of Fame. Their latest recording— Bruckner's 5th Symphony—was nominated for a 2010 Grammy Award. The recording was released to remarkable critical acclaim both for the performance and for Zander's now famous full-length disc explaining the music for the lay listener.

Mr. Zander is one of the most sought-after speakers on leadership to corporations around the world. He gave the opening keynote address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2009. His philosophies and experiences as a teacher are contained in a best selling book, The Art of Possibility, co-authored with psychotherapist Rosamund Zander, which has been translated into 16 languages.